Cowichan Woman Against Violence!

Album Notes

ABOUT JUSTICE: AN ANTHOLOGY OF COURAGE

Caroline Margaret was my birth mother. She was born in England to a white Irish mother and a black Jamaican father. She was moved to Vancouver with her mother and her siblings at five years old. I’m told she was a charismatic and feisty girl and she ended up on the street at 12 years old. She had me when she was 18 years old, and my older sister at 16. I don’t remember her.

She ended up on the street because of family troubles, and to support herself she worked in the escort business. She was as clean as she ever was when she had me, and was in a halfway house to try and get to safety. She was murdered at 22. There were 22 other women murdered the same way within a 2 year time period. No one was ever caught and there was no further investigation. These crimes remain unsolved. When I was 14 my intuition told me she was dead, and this knowing was confirmed to me when I was 20, after my birth sister found out she was dead.

I’ve had an unquenchable drive to tell her story and speak for those who did not have a voice, including myself, since my young teenage years. This is my war cry. My deep guttural imperative saying “Listen!” And this is how I do it – my first language is music, and this is why I’m creating this CD.

My mother was a person who wanted to laugh and hang out and do everyday things, and she never had that chance.
Justice: an anthology of courage is about my mother, but it includes many other stories because I feel stories are universal, and we are strengthened when we come together and share stories and experience. The only way we create movement is with energy, and energy happens through communal communication. Hearing other people’s stories allows us to connect to the bigger picture and gets us out of ourselves, realizing that our stories affect each other, and whether we like it or not, we can’t escape our experiences. This is why I’m creating this CD, and this is why I’m asking for help. Caroline Margaret was my birth mother.

This is for her.

This is for everyone.

Post News

Writing an album is hard. It requires TIME and an incredible amount of creative energy to unpack the lyrics and stories that want to reveal themselves. This has been an extreme honour for me as many of these stories come with great loss and great pain attached. I am incredibly humbled by all of your support and it’s hard to express the great value I place on people simply showing up. Showing up for life is basically all we have. Showing up for people. Being available. Being an encourager and advocate for COURAGE and CHANGE. This album is more then just my story although my story seems to run through all of these. This is OUR story. Our story of speaking up. Our story of finding JOY in pain. Our story of STRENGTH and UNITY. My voice has always been my most vulnerable asset. Truth be told it’s the thing I have mocked most. My voice is tiny. It’s innocent. I sound like a 10 year old. BUT I am using it anyway…and with it I will ROAR like a lion for my Mother. For Woman and Men of courage. It’s time to speak and be heard <3 Tanya